Fans have been awaiting a potential collaboration between Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole, but according to Vine Report, this album may no longer happen because of legal battles regarding Lamar's music on his album "To Pimp a Butterfly."
As stated in the report, Lamar's song "I Do This" is not entirely an original composition and it was not made entirely by Lamar or any of his licensed songwriters. Instead, it has been revealed that a portion of the song is ripped from the Bill Wither's 1975 song "Don't You Want to Stay."
Due to this, the Mattie Music Group, which Wither's song is contracted under, has initiated plagiarism charges against Lamar and this may have caused the collaboration album to come to a halt. Fans speculate that J. Cole may want to avoid working with someone facing plagiarism charges as the negative feedback may affect their sales and reputation.
Fans speculate that J. Cole may be aiming to collaborate with someone without legal concerns in order to market the album to a wider audience and this may no longer be the case if there is negative feedback regarding Lamar's recent work.
It was also previously reported that J. Cole could already be working on a collaboration album with someone else entirely. Instead of working with Lamar as initially planned, he could instead be working together with Drake. Neither Drake nor J. Cole has made any official comment regarding this, however, and it remains as pure speculation.
There are also speculations that the two artists are focusing primarily on their solo careers for the time being instead of working together, given that they are on their own tours and have launched brand-new albums. However, while this may be delaying the album, it is speculated that Lamar's legal battles are the bigger concern.
